by Jorge L. Ortiz and Paul White, USA TODAY Sports

by Jorge L. Ortiz and Paul White, USA TODAY Sports

Baseball's injury situation is bordering on a plague. Nearly five full teams - 120 players - are on the disabled list, thinning rosters and testing depth early. But some injuries are more hurtful than others. USA TODAY Sports' Paul White and Jorge L. Ortiz examine five that have greatly impacted their teams:

Adrian Beltre: No offense in Texas

Back when the Texas Rangers were making consecutive World Series in 2010 and 2011, Adrian Beltre provided valuable offensive contributions to a club that included Josh Hamilton, Michael Young and Nelson Cruz.

Now Beltre's bat is downright essential, and the Rangers will have to make do without it until at least April 25.

That's the soonest the star third baseman will be eligible to return to action after Texas placed him on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left quadriceps Sunday, retroactive to Wednesday.

His absence leaves a gaping hole in a lineup that no longer ranks among the majors' most explosive, as it did in the World Series seasons, when it finished in the top five in runs scored both times.

Despite the offseason addition of Prince Fielder and Shin-Soo Choo, Texas doesn't scare opposing pitching staffs anymore. After twice beating the Houston Astros 1-0 over the weekend, the Rangers were 10th in the American League in runs scored and next-to-last in home runs with five.

"You see a game like (Friday) night, you're dying to have his bat in there,'' Texas general manager Jon Daniels said after his team's 1-0 win in 12 innings. "But the last thing we want is for (Beltre) to grab on it again and he's down for two or three months instead of two or three weeks.''

The Rangers have been counting on Fielder to lighten the offensive load for Beltre, the team's full-time cleanup hitter since 2012. But Fielder, acquired in a blockbuster trade with the Detroit Tigers in the offseason, is off to the worst start of his career.

The former NL home run champ is batting .149 with zero homers and a .191 slugging percentage, looking lost at the plate.

The Rangers, who have been decimated by injuries to the likes of pitchers Derek Holland and Matt Harrison, catcher Geovany Soto and infielder Jurickson Profar, continue to plug holes.

In Beltre's stead, they've called up third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff, who was out of the majors in 2012 and '13. In that time, Beltre was finishing third and seventh, respectively, in AL MVP race and winning his fourth Gold Glove.

It's not what you'd call an even exchange.

Clayton Kershaw: Dodgers dominant, but for how long?

At some point, the Los Angeles Dodgers are bound to miss Clayton Kershaw.

Teams don't lose their staff ace â?? especially one with two Cy Young Awards and three consecutive ERA titles on his resume â?? without feeling a detrimental impact.

So far, though, the Dodgers' depth and a solid bullpen have allowed them to weather Kershaw's absence due to an upper-back strain for all but the season opener in Australia on March 22. They sit atop the NL West with a 9-4 mark and their rotation is sporting a 3.21 ERA.

Zack Greinke, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Dan Haren have combined to go 7-1, and all have ERAs below 2.80.

Due to Monday's off-day, the Dodgers could have tweaked their rotation so both Ryu and Greinke would have faced the San Francisco Giants in the three-game set that begins Tuesday at AT&T Park.

Manager Don Mattingly opted instead to give his starters an extra day of rest, telling reporters he's "managing for the whole season and keeping guys strong. With the off-days, we want to take care of guys as much as we could."

That seems like a smart approach considering the uncertainty over Kershaw's return â?? sometime in May is the tentative date â?? and the shaky performances of the starters at the bottom of the rotation

Josh Beckett and Paul Maholm, who will start the first two games in San Francisco before Ryu pitches the finale, failed to make it to the fifth inning in their respective starts.

They'll both get a chance to find their way against the Giants, who'd just as soon face Sandy Koufax than Kershaw, considering his career 1.38 ERA in 22 outings against them.

"You don't like facing Kershaw, but the other option is a very good pitcher,'' Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "You know that with the depth they have over there. They're throwing the ball very well. They're on a roll now.''

Manny Machado: Orioles trying to wait patiently

The Manny Machado situation remains a cloud in Baltimore, where the Orioles look up from the bottom of a balanced AL East.

"You can't sit here and worry about when he's going to come back," says first baseman Chris Davis, the 2013 home run leader who hit his first of this season during an 11-3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday.

"We trust that Manny's doing everything he can to get back, but you know we got guys in here that can pick him up. And that's part of the season," Davis said. "That's part of the game. Injuries are a part of the game. You've got to use what you've got."

A broken thumb Zimmerman suffered while being picked off second base Saturday at Atlanta will keep the third baseman out four to six weeks and put on hold questions about his ongoing shoulder problems.

Replacing a former Gold Glover batting .364 with 1.042 OPS isn't easy but the Nationals, already with catcher Wilson Ramos sidelined by a broken hamate bone, are better prepared to deal with an injury to Zimmerman than at most other positions.

Anthony Rendon, batting .340, moves from second base to third and Danny Espinosa, the man Rendon took the second base job from last season, goes back to an everyday role. He's hitting .318 this year for a team that's unbeaten against everyone but Atlanta, but 1-5 against the Braves team that has a one-game edge on Washington atop the NL East.

Zimmerman's time off will allow rest to an ongoing shoulder issue that had him working recently on a new three-quarters throwing motion designed to take pressure off the shoulder.

Zimmerman, who's had shoulder issues that were treated with cortisone injections and even surgery over the past couple of seasons, said he thought he could avoid either this year. Unlike in the past, he said, swinging the bat has not caused pain so the change in throwing could save Williams from some difficult decisions.

Williams said last week that he would consider some first base time for Zimmerman, but Adam LaRoche plays there and is off to hot .311 start with a team-leading 10 RBI. Zimmerman at first to make room for both Rendon and Espinosa is an option for next season after LaRoche's contract runs out but the lineup dilemma for Williams could return with Zimmerman in four to six weeks.

Mat Latos: Slow-starting Reds stay patient

Mat Latos won't throw a baseball for possibly another two weeks, a setback in the Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher's return from knee surgery. He's one of eight Reds who started the season on the disabled list, a collection that caused related dilemmas throughout the pitching staff.

Latos has a flexor mass strain in his right arm - unrelated to the original injury but enough to slow the return to normalcy for a 2013 playoff team that finds itself tied for last in the NL Central.

Rookie manager Bryan Price said at the end of spring training he needed to find a balance between easing his team to health and not giving away the first couple of weeks of the season. A victory vs. the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday only got the Reds to 4-8.

Aroldis Chapman, meanwhile, is ahead of expectations if not schedule. The closer has no specific timetable to return but will throw his first bullpen session today since taking a line drive to his face during spring training.

With Chapman and would-be replacement Sean Marshall on the disabled list plus Jonathan Broxton just back from his a flexor tendon injury, the Cincinnati bullpen ranks last in the NL with a 4.72 ERA and has blown two of three save opportunities.

Price found himself considering veteran Alfredo Simon for the closer's role but also seeing the 33-year-old right-hander as the next-best option for the rotation. Simon has responded with a team-leading 1.20 ERA over two starts.